Pre-Baby bucket list!

I'm off work, with just short of 10 weeks to go until our little ladies due date..

I'm compiling a pre-baby bucket list and would be very grateful if you lovely ladies could help! Is there anything you wish you had done before you beautiful babies arrived? Things that I have so far are; watch a full TV series on Netflix, write a letter to my daughter to open when she's 16, have 1 pamper night per week, wash all of the babies clothed and finish online ante-natal classes!

I did things like going out for lunch on my own, quite happily sat there with a book enjoying the quiet and freedom. Getting my nails dome become a weekly thing. I also discovered the joy of going to the cinema alone in the day.

Lol! This thread is brill. I have no tips as 23 weeks with first, a baby boy, but these sound great!! I'm wishing I'd learnt to drive already (am 38). Hey ho, will have to do lessons while on Mat Leave...

Reading the weekend papers over long lazy brunches. That's what I miss most. Also clothes shopping is hard and I ended up with way too many supermarket clothes once I was out of my maternity stuff / pjs. Buy yourself new pants, socks etc now.

Cinema. Once a week, minimum.Defrost freezer and fill with nice, easy to heat up food.HaircutDentist, hygienist and check up.Get oven cleaned.Clean out kitchen cupboards, understairs cupboard, etc.Spend some one on one time with your childless friends.Nap every day.Dinner at a proper nice restaurant with DP.Weekend away if you can.Enjoy!

Spend loads of quality time with your partner - conversations not about poo or sleep are good. Have lots of sex.

Go out ALL THE TIME - the aim is to go out so much that you just fancy some time at home for a few months.

Don't watch any telly, that's all you'll be doing in the first few months.

Long baths holding real books with two hands.

I'm torn between suggesting you practice eating with one hand, or enjoy eating with both a knife AND fork.. maybe split your time over these two activities. Particularly focus on eating things like roast dinners or spag bol with one hand - plate or bowl must be balancing on the sofa arm, not being held sensibly in the other hand.

Don't worry about lie-ins too much - you can have those with a baby. We all got up yesterday at 2pm.

Run, swim.. exercise at leisure rather than on a strict time limit like you will be doing afterwards.

Spend some time looking (and trying on) breastfeeding tops or dresses - I've had to do online shopping for mine, and it's a total pain to get them sent back. Not to mention the impact on my cash flow. Make sure you have clothes sorted out for immediately post birth - those first few days are hectic, you just want to be able to wear comfy things that enable easy boob access, and you don't really have time to dither over the wardrobe every day. Maybe this is obvious? I know that I felt really unattractive those first few days, and not having things to wear was part of it. In fact, it's only now at 2 months that I feel OK in my clothes - I've sorted out underwired nursing bras, have sorted out tops that work... so I've stopped wearing my maternity sacks finally.

Just enjoy time alone. I didn't get even an hour to myself until 6 weeks post birth, and then I didn't enjoy it all that much because I was feeling odd about not having her with me!

Oh, have conversations with your partner about expectations - it's hard to do properly without resentment when you are sleep deprived and hormonal. Try this one: yes this baby is now your full time job, it's also using all your social time, hobby time, alone time and a lot of your sleep time - when he is home from work, you should be finished with 'work' too - the rest of the time is about shared parenthood, not him 'helping' you out. Ie, if you are feeding the child, he needs to be doing stuff that helps the household/you first, before he plays on his phone - that's what you'll be doing when he's occupying the child. There are a lot of things to resent in the early days because it is completely skewed towards you doing all the work, you need to try and prevent some of that resentment building up by making sure he's clear about the expectations. But that might just be us!!

Get things like portions of soup and stew in the freezer ready for a microwave - if you imagine they need to be eaten one handed it might help later on. If you don't cook, then M&S do good 'mini meals' that are ace for lunches and freeze OK.

Type two handed!! My baby is currently in a sling but it's still hard to type two handed around her.

Learn to drive now Houghton! What are the odds of them failing a heavily pregnant woman

Bone up on breastfeeding if you plan to do it. I particularly recommend www.kellymom.com and the BF topic on MN. My baby was 3 weeks early - all the stuff I'd planned to do in my 2 weeks off never happened.

Def sort out your wardrobe if you plan to BF. It was such a PITA suddenly realising that nothing worked or would show up the baby puke...

Think about returning to work - seriously!Update your CV and sort out any files and contacts you want to keep. Email them to yourself. You might not go back to the same job or in fact the same company. Many people get made redundant while on Maternity leave. It's a fallacy that you can't be/won't be. Many more people look for a new job while on mat leave because they want new hours or a more convenient location for childcare or a nice new job dropped into their lap.

Have a proper work appraisal and take a copy home. If the worst does happen, you will have a list of all the good stuff you achieved before baby fog hits and takes a lot of the stress out of doing an interview when your "recent achievements" consist of cleaning up projectile poo and getting your PFB to smile at you.

Read the Sunday Times, cover to cover, in bed.

Just go back to bed. Get up, make a cup of tea and some toast, consume it and go back to bed. Bliss.

Buy some cheap pale coloured [doesn't show up baby puke] throws for the sofa which will be nearly dry once through the spin cycle. Homebase is good.

Set up some staple lists on online shopping. Weekly staples, and monthly staples [loo roll, washing powder etc] so you can even with 60 seconds get a shop done on line.

Get something that you can read on in the dark - a tablet or a kindle. I recommend a tablet so you can surf MN to see/ask "Is this normal?"

Definitely discuss expectations with your partner. I wish I had as they often turned into fights as we were so sleep deprived.

I sat down a lot when my girl was born. Just holding her and feeding her. Tv was my friend so I wouldn't worry about watching Netflix now. My husband got me Netflix in feb for my birthday was dd was 2 months old so I would have stuff to watch while holding her.

If you can go for a weekend away or a night somewhere. We went to York for a night when I was 30 weeks and I still remember it fondly. The memory of that last time when it was just us was brilliant as now our world revolves around someone else.

Just have some time to do things for you. Being tied to someone else has been exhausting. My dd likes to crawl and climb on me nowadays so I don't have much time for me at all.

go out in the evening with your partner - cinema, dinner etc, as often as possible. Don't bother with watching tv series on netflix - you will have time to do a LOT of that when you are breastfeeding! Sleep, sleep, and more sleep. In particular enjoy the feeling of waking up naturally because you have had enough sleep. It will be a long time before that happens again.......

im 24 weeks and im getting the decorating done before little one arrives. our bedroom needs it most its only had a fresh coat of magnolia and a new carpet since we moved in 7 and half years ago so its time it got a makeover